REVEALING THE FUTURE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 42, 20 April 1942, Page 6

REVEALING THE FUTURE

PRESENT WAR FORETOLD

•SOME UNCANNY PROPHESIES

Curo.sity about the future is one of the oldest human instincts, and even in civilised countries there is always a hearing for the clairvoyant and astrologer. Not unnaturally their predictions reccive special attention in times of uncertainty and danger like the present. A long record of prophecies that went astray ought to make us chary of believing that the future can be foretold. On the other hand, some forecasts have proved remarkably accurate. It will hardly do to dismiss all pi'opheticutterances as rubbish. About a year ago the Polish Press Bureau in London thought it worth while to publish a fifty-year-old prophecy that has a bearing on the present war. In justification they could have pointed to the fact that some of it has already come true. It foretold, for example, that the whole world would be soaked in blocd in 1913 (which is near enough to the date of the outbreak of the First World War), and also the rebirth of Poland: "Out of the conflagration of the world Poland shall rise again after the two eagles (symbols cf Imperial Russia and Austria) have fallen intoi dust." When Peace Will Come The prophecy had a strange origin. It was uttered by a medium j named Tegoborza at a seance held in 1893 in south-eastern Poland, at the house of a man interested in spiritualism, one Wielogolowski, who presented a record of it tci the Ossolinski Library at Lwow. The prediction that Poland would regain her independence was accompanied by a warning that "her fate shall for a long time remain illomened and her dreams shall no>t be easily realised." The rise of the swastika and the first German conquests seem to be foretold in this passage: "When the Black Eagle shall besmirch the sign of the Cross and spread out his illboding wings, two nations shall fall without anyone being able to save

them." Whether the rest cf the prophecy will be fulfilled may depend on the turn the Avar takes in the next few months. It predicts a conflict between. Germany and Russia (or possibly a joint military venture), ending in the destruction of both and the restoration of Poland to her ancient greatness: "The besmirched Cross shall fall together with the Hammer and the predatory powers shall be left with naught, while the Masurian Land (East Prussia) shall return to Poland and Danzig will be our port. A Cheering Vision The Tegoborza Prophecy was not the first toi foretell the resurrection of Poland. In 1786 a Polish-Ukrain-ian seer named Vernyhora predicted that Poland would become an independent nation again when the Turks watered their horses: in the Vistula. That was fulfilled to the letter; in 1917 Turkish troops arrived on the Eastern front to reinforce the Austrians. In his fascinating little bock, "Great Prophecies About the War." Mr Clarence Reed takes a famous medieval prophecy and shows that it can be related to* current events. The Prophecy of St. (Mile, as it is called, is named after the patron saint of Alsace, who was born in 657. It was probably composed by a monk. Though it had been known for ccnturies —to Cardinal Newman, among others —it was not published until 1916, when a copy appeared in Paris. There is an apparent reference to Hitler in the prediction that a conqueror of German race, starting from the banks of the Danube, will involve twenty nations in the mosl frightful Avar mankind has ever suffered. "He Avill Avin victories on land, sea, and even in the air. For

his Avarriors Avill be seen, winged, in unimaginable carer riding up into the' lirmament lo catch the stars in order to hurl them doAA r n on towns and ignite great fires." The prophet goes on: "The nations Avill be astonished and Avill exclaim-: "Whence comes his strength? Hoav has he been able to undertake such a Avar?' " It is cheering to read that a time av ill come —someAvhere in the second year of the Avar —Avhen the victor Avill have no more confidence in liis armies. "This Avill be callcd the period of invasion, because the country of the conqueror will be invaded in all directions and laid Avaste in righteous retribution for his acts of injustice and irreligion. About the mountain Avill flow streams of blood; it av ill- be the last battle. Nations will chant liicir hymns ol'

thanksgiving in the temples of God and will thank Him for their deliverance, because there will have appeared a warrior who will scatter the troops of the conqueror, Avhose armies will be decimated by a great unknown illness."

The famous Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, is generally credited Avith having foretold the last Avar in a prophecy he made a feAV months before death in 1910. It appeared in scA'eral neAVspapers at the time. "Man Who Is Never Wrong'" Tolstoy predicted quite correctly that the first countries to be engulfed by a flame of Avar woui'jd be those of south-eastern Europe, but he Avas a little out in his dates. According to him the conflagration Avas to begin about 1912 and develop into a "destructive calamity" in 1913. "In that year,"he Avrote, "I see all Europe in flames and bleeding. I hear lamentations on huge battlefields." It has been suggested that after the Avar Europe may be "federated." This gives interest to Tolstoy's prediction that the Old World Avill CA r entually form itself into a federation of united States. He fore■saAV the partitioning of the European nations into four giant blocks —the Anglo Saxons, the Latins, the Slavs and the Mongolians. The omission of the Aryans from this Ncav Order must be very galling to Hitler! At the present time the prophecies of Michel de Nostre Dame or Nostradamus, to give, him his Latin name, are again attracting attention. Nostradamus has been called "The Man Who is Never Wrong." He was a student of astrology Avho lived in the south of France in the sixteenth century, • and his reputation Is based on a book of A r erse prophecies, "The Centuries," Avhich he published in 1555.

His clairvoyant gifts so impressed Henrj r 11, King" of France, and his Queen, Catherine de Medici, that they summoned him to Paris and consulted him about their children. He successfully predicted that Henry IT would be killed in a tourney and that Catherine's three sons would till be kings. The second of these sons, Charles IX, appointed him court physician.

His prestige grew in England after the execution of Charles I, which was held to be a fulfilment of the prophecy that "The- Parliament of London will put the King to death." An English translation of his beck was published in 1672, and the Young Pretender is said to have pored over it in the hope of finding some prediction that would encourage his supporters. The Black Monk The fame cf Nostradamus reached new heights during the French Revolution. And no. wonder. It was found that, besides foretelling the date when "the revolution of the century" would break out. he had predicted in detail one of the most dramatic incidents: the King's flight to Varennes. "The night will come to the forest of Rheims. A black monk in grey under the name of Cap will cause tempest, fire, blood and knife." Louis XVI did try to escape through the forest of Rheims in the disguise of a monk. Cap suggests Capet, the- name he was given. His flight cost him his head, and his death marked the beginning of the Reign of Terror, during which the knife (Madame la Guillotine) claimed hundreds of victims: and the gutters of Paris ran with blood. Equally uncanny was Nostradaraus's prevision of Napoleon's rise to greatness. "From a common soldier" he wrote, "will be made an Empire. From a short coat lie will go to a long mantle. Valiant in arms, he ivill be a thorn ih the side of Church and priests." It all came true!

Nostradamus took care to safeguard himself by writing in parables, and he was generally a little vague about dates. Nevertheless, there is good reason to think that he foresaw the Franco-Prussian War, and he was certainly not far out in predicting that France* would march against an enemy after four Saturnian cycles from the date of the French Revolution. Four cycles of about thirty j r ears each brings us roughly to the outbreak of the First World War. Prophecy That Haunts Hitler It is startling to come upon a prediction that Germany would invade France in 1940 after feigning friendship, and even more startling to read that the Germans would have a leader named Hister. Spelling was not Nostradamus's strong i>oint, nnd Hister must be reckoned a pretty good guess at Hitler. We are told that "France by a neglect shall be assaulted on five sides. Tunis, Algiers shall be moved." Astonishing, too, are the prophecies concerning modern Italy: "Naples, Palermo all Sicily shall be inhabited by foreign violence. Cor-

sica, Salerno and Sardinia—hunger, plague and Avar. . . . The pretended union shall not last long, most shall change their opinion; in the fleet the people shall be paralysed, then Rome "will have a new dictator . . . Weep, Milan, Lucca and Florence, that thy great Duce mount the chariot of Avar!" Can Ave deduce fro.lll these utterances that Nostradamus foresaAV the disasters that Mussolini has brought upon Italy? The eventual fate predicted for Hister, by the Avay, is imprisonment in an iron cage. Hitler must knoAV of this, for he has never disguised his interest in astrology and at one time he kept his oAvn astrologer, the luckless Czech, Hanusscn. Let us hope he has been suitably impressed!